The present invention relates to an adjustable seat in general, and more particularly to an adjustable seat to be used in a motor vehicle. Still more particularly, the present invention is concerned with an adjustable seat the seat element of which is displaceable along an elongated carrier arrangement which is tiltable along a vertical plane.
There is already known, from the U.S. Pat. No. 3,079,118, a seat for motor vehicles which is adjustable by means of an electromotoric drive, wherein an electromotor can be coupled, by means of electromagnetically controlled couplings, with three adjusting mechanisms of which one performs the longitudinal adjustment of the seat element relative to an elongated guide, another one takes care of the adjustment of the elevation of the front region of the guide, and the third one provides for the adjustment of the elevation of the rear region of the guide. Arrangements of this type are very expensive, primarily because of the required numerous components of the various mechanisms, and assume a substantial amount of space. In addition thereto, the operation of this arrangement, when the adjustment of the position of the seat element is to be accomplished in a desired and predetermined manner, requires that the user of the seat devotes a considerable part of, if not entire, attention to the performance of this task.
From the U.S. Pat. No. 2,953,190, there is known an electromotorically adjustable seat for use in motor vehicles in which an electromotor drives a pinion at each of the two lateral regions of the seat, each by means of a flexible shaft. Then, each of the pinions meshes with a toothed rack which is connected to the seat element to displace the seat element along a stationary guide which is arcuate over its length. This arrangement possesses an inordinately and disadvantageously great height of construction, which renders it impossible to use a seat of this type in a wide variety of motor vehicles, particularly in sports cars and the like.